1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information presentation apparatus and an information presentation method, and in particular to an information presentation apparatus and an information presentation method that display subtitles together with video.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, audio information has been presented as text together with the display of images during television broadcasts and the like. Such text is referred to as “subtitles” or “captions”, and plays a role in aiding viewers' understanding of image-based media content.
However, there has been the problem that when a viewer is concentrating on reading subtitles, the viewer's attention is diverted from other information aside from the subtitles, such as video information. In such case, even if the viewer can understand the information being presented as subtitles, the viewer may not be able to understand the other information expressed by video or the like.
Even when the viewer is not concentrating so hard to read the subtitles, the viewer's field of vision may still become narrow by reading the subtitles, and therefore it may be difficult for the viewer to obtain the other information presented outside the viewer's field of vision. That is, it has been difficult to simultaneously grasp the information expressed as subtitles and the information expressed by means aside from subtitles, such as video.
In addition, the information that the viewer considers to be important is not limited to subtitle information, and information that is important to the viewer may be displayed in areas aside from the area in which the subtitles are displayed. For this reason, there has been such a risk that when viewing video in which subtitles are displayed, the viewer may miss important information.
In recent years, there has been an increase in the screen size of television receivers and display apparatuses connected to personal computers. When viewing such a large screen, it becomes even more difficult for the viewer to simultaneously fit both the video and subtitles in his/her field of vision.
It is also possible to display a plurality of programs and/or video content on a plurality of display apparatuses disposed next to one another or in different areas of a single display screen. In such cases, video and audio are simultaneously presented to viewers by different programs or media contents. This means that to clearly understand the information of the program being viewed, the viewer may have to concentrate harder to obtain the subtitle information. That is, there is the problem that it becomes even more difficult to simultaneously grasp the content expressed by video and the content expressed by subtitles.
As one example of a method of solving this problem, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-13725 discloses that when displaying a plurality of programs on a plurality of screens, audio is outputted for one screen and subtitles are displayed on another screen.